Arts, Culture, and Heritage as Drivers of Change
Just Transition Culture 2025
Just Transition Culture 2025 - Art and Activism in Transitioning Regions
The Just Transition Culture project emerged from cooperation between activists and artists from regions in Romania, Greece and Poland transitioning away from coal. By showcasing cultural expression, it explored issues of identity within the context of an ongoing transformation through concerts, dance & theatre performances, exhibitions, study visits, workshops, murals and installations, creating a blend of artistic forms in a shifting cultural landscape.
Poland
Local
Konin, Kleczew, Wierzbinek
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It involves other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
2025-06-25
No
No
No
Organisation
The Just Transition Culture project emerged thanks to cooperation between NGOs from coal regions in Romania, Greece and Poland. Envisioned as a cultural supplement to the Annual Political Dialogue (APD) for Coal Regions in Transition in Konin Poland in June 2025, we showcased the culture of the regions and explored issues of identity within the context of an ongoing transformation. The programme included concerts, theatre and dance performances, exhibitions, study visits, murals and installations, as well as art workshops, all with the participation of artists from 3 regions: Western Macedonia in Greece, Jiu Valley in Romania, and Eastern Wielkopolska in Poland.
Highlights:
-The Blue Crocodile – art project led by Ion Barbu, Romanian artist and initiator of the ‘Planeta Petrilla’ project, repainting an electric mining locomotive to create a living sculpture. The famous 'Crocodile' is to be preserved and put on display once coal mining and transport operations cease
-Study visit – touring the DOLORES excavator, with JTC organisers and mining employees acting as guides
-International Table – artistic fusion of cuisines of 3 regions, emphasis on traditional cuisine of the region, by Boguszyce Housewives’ Association under guidance of artist Magdalena Deput
-Murals by Silesian artist Karol Kobryń, merging regional folk art styles with the concept of new green energy
-“Poszeter Jid” – performance of Kolski Open Theatre group recounting the 80-year industrial history of the Konin Basin, including the difficult WWII period and first discovery of coal
- Exhibitions by Polish and Greek artists
-Art workshops by artists from Florina and Poland, with creation of collaborative collages
-Concert – music performances by PAK KWB Konin Miners’ Brass Orchestra and Fanfara Avantura from Poland, Romanian Tinutul Momarlanilor and Greek Florina Modern Ensemble; dance by Konin Dance Theatre from Poland and Lygkistes from Greece on the stages of the Konin Cultural Centre
Highlights:
-The Blue Crocodile – art project led by Ion Barbu, Romanian artist and initiator of the ‘Planeta Petrilla’ project, repainting an electric mining locomotive to create a living sculpture. The famous 'Crocodile' is to be preserved and put on display once coal mining and transport operations cease
-Study visit – touring the DOLORES excavator, with JTC organisers and mining employees acting as guides
-International Table – artistic fusion of cuisines of 3 regions, emphasis on traditional cuisine of the region, by Boguszyce Housewives’ Association under guidance of artist Magdalena Deput
-Murals by Silesian artist Karol Kobryń, merging regional folk art styles with the concept of new green energy
-“Poszeter Jid” – performance of Kolski Open Theatre group recounting the 80-year industrial history of the Konin Basin, including the difficult WWII period and first discovery of coal
- Exhibitions by Polish and Greek artists
-Art workshops by artists from Florina and Poland, with creation of collaborative collages
-Concert – music performances by PAK KWB Konin Miners’ Brass Orchestra and Fanfara Avantura from Poland, Romanian Tinutul Momarlanilor and Greek Florina Modern Ensemble; dance by Konin Dance Theatre from Poland and Lygkistes from Greece on the stages of the Konin Cultural Centre
The idea of organising a cultural event bringing together artists and activists from transitioning regions had been floating around for a few years in many a conversation. Through our work as local & international activists working on the just transition, Miłosława Stępień & Mariusz Harmasz from Konin in Poland, Kostas Filipidis & Simos Konstantinou from Florina in Greece and Adina Vintan from Jiu Valley in Romania came together to create the event. All three places are currently undergoing a transition away from coal. We decided on the date as linked to the Annual Political Dialogue on Coal Regions in Transition in Konin, Poland in 2025. Mariusz Harmasz took on the organisation of the event, and that's how the crazy journey began. It was organised by this handful of people from 3 countries, getting increased amounts of individuals and institutions involved, primarily by sharing with them our passion and excitement about the project. While the initial vision was much grander (a huge event for thousands of people), we ultimately scaled it down, still managing to bring over 50 artists and activists from across Poland, Jiu Valley in Romania and Florina in Greece to the town of Konin. While the activists from Konin organized the venue, sponsoring, event programme, accommodation, catering and all the little things necessary to make a 5-day international event possible, our friends from Greece and Romania took care of all the matters necessary for their artists to embark on their journey to Poland and perform here. The organisation of the event took about 9 months of intense work. We received support or help from many local individuals, institutions and companies, but also other larger national and international NGOs and European Commission institutions involved in the Just Transition process. It would thus not have have been possible to have the event without many people coming together, turning our vision into reality, creating a vibrant space for cultural exchange.
Drivers of Change
Multi-level Collaboration
Hope Aesthetics
Sense of Place
Community resilience through Culture
All 3 regions participating in the event, Eastern Wielkopolska, Western Macedonia & Jiu Valley, are transitioning away from coal. The industry had shaped the regions for decades through economic activity and employment opportunities linked to coal extraction and energy production. Finding ourselves at a crossroad and needing to develop a concept for the future, we face great social, demographic, economic, employment, environmental and cultural challenges. All the people involved have been working on tackling these challenges for years, while also noting the opportunities and developing new concepts for a future of the regions. For the first time on such a scale, the voices of international creative communities operating in areas covered by the Just Transition process was heard at the JTC event.
JTC was hosted by artists and cultural organisers from Eastern Wielkopolska involved in projects such as:
DOLORES: A-Bride-to-Be – preservation for museum purposes of the Srs-1800 DOLORES excavator; one of the largest machines operating in the Konin Basin
Transfer Bridge – the preservation and conversion of Poland’s longest industrial bridge into a pedestrian and cycling bridge, linking the post-industrial Northern Trail developed as part of the Northern Future project
“Prostownia” Research Office – the preservation of a traction substation building and its conversion into a post-industrial cultural centre combining art, technology, history, education and ecology
Guests and partners at the event included the creative community from Romania, initiators of the “Planeta Petrila” project aiming to repurpose former mining sites for cultural activities, and a youth-focused NGO from Florina, initiators of a project renovating a local building for use as a youth and culture centre.
The event was not created in isolation, instead drawing on many years of activities and tied to the implementation of ongoing projects targetting cultural repurposing of industrial heritage sites.
JTC was hosted by artists and cultural organisers from Eastern Wielkopolska involved in projects such as:
DOLORES: A-Bride-to-Be – preservation for museum purposes of the Srs-1800 DOLORES excavator; one of the largest machines operating in the Konin Basin
Transfer Bridge – the preservation and conversion of Poland’s longest industrial bridge into a pedestrian and cycling bridge, linking the post-industrial Northern Trail developed as part of the Northern Future project
“Prostownia” Research Office – the preservation of a traction substation building and its conversion into a post-industrial cultural centre combining art, technology, history, education and ecology
Guests and partners at the event included the creative community from Romania, initiators of the “Planeta Petrila” project aiming to repurpose former mining sites for cultural activities, and a youth-focused NGO from Florina, initiators of a project renovating a local building for use as a youth and culture centre.
The event was not created in isolation, instead drawing on many years of activities and tied to the implementation of ongoing projects targetting cultural repurposing of industrial heritage sites.
Our project was created by artists and activists, focusing primarily on forms of artistic expression created by people closely linked to the regions they represent. These are people passionate about their communities and their local heritage, seeking to reimagine local forms of cultural expression (both traditional and modern, folk and high art) and their industrial heritage into something that can serve as a basis for a new identity for the regions: one that also does not forget the past. Care for our surroundings and a sense of belonging is written into the very fabric of what we do, as we live, work, act and create here.
The project has also developed or popularized specific objects that we hope will help create a different image of the region, such as the reimagined former mining locomotive as a blue crocodile that continues to travel our landscapes or the two murals created by an artist from Silesia that adorn local buildings. By merging seemingly different cultural traditions from various corners of Europe, folk and popular art and that of conservatories and art academies, graphic design and arts and crafts, education and fun, we were able to form a space for a discussion about what it means for a community to be changing and how it can look to the future and continue to respect its past. It is an aesthetics of a hopeful future, across geographies, cultures and generations, diluting difference and division by finding similarities, commonality and collaboration.
The project has also developed or popularized specific objects that we hope will help create a different image of the region, such as the reimagined former mining locomotive as a blue crocodile that continues to travel our landscapes or the two murals created by an artist from Silesia that adorn local buildings. By merging seemingly different cultural traditions from various corners of Europe, folk and popular art and that of conservatories and art academies, graphic design and arts and crafts, education and fun, we were able to form a space for a discussion about what it means for a community to be changing and how it can look to the future and continue to respect its past. It is an aesthetics of a hopeful future, across geographies, cultures and generations, diluting difference and division by finding similarities, commonality and collaboration.
Most project elements were accessible for free to the local community upon registration. It was a collaborative project, enabling those interested in such activities to become a part of the project. We provided a framework and found ways of merging more professional art forms with local arts and crafts, by having fun with art forms during our workshops to create a collage, or including rural groups creating traditional dishes into the format by adding artistic design to the tables on which their food was served. Alongside professional musicians, such as those from the Florina Modern Ensemble (linked to the Florina Conservatory), we had very young musicians from Romania from Tinutal Mormolinur, who play local traditional folk music. We found ways in which we could see the performance of a local amateur theatrical group alongside professional dancers while maintaining a high standard of the event. In terms of inclusion, we see art and culture as a space within which there is room for everyone to express themselves and to bring their own passion and sense of community to such a joint collaborative project.
The event was formulated as an invitation to collaborate and it would not have been possible if not for the contributions of a wide diversity of actors. The local Boguszyce Housewives Association from a small village lying right next to the last active mine in Eastern Wielkopolska made food for the members of the Florina Music Conservatory (the Florina Modern Ensemble performing with the singer Violetta Lousta), who played their music at the 3-hour-long live concert we organized. The international NGO Beyond Fossil Fuels funded the murals in Konin and the small town of Kleczew, painted by Karol Kobryń, an artist from the largest Polish coal region, Silesia. CEE Bankwatch Network helped create the project's film, which was made by a local filmmaker, Adam Jaroński, who has for years been recording the last days of the region's mines, its machines and the people who work there. Young volunteers from Eastern Wielkopolska, fascinated with mining transport systems, helped the Romanian artist, Ion Barbu in his painting of the Blue Crocodile. Local activists, who had participated in creating the concept of retaining the huge Dolores excavator as part of a heritage project, organized a study trip to visit it for participants of the EU's Annual Political Dialogue, including representatives of the European Commission, while the Coal Mine's employees told us all about its history. Konin's modern dance group performed at the same event as the Lygkistes group from Florina, focused on the tranditional cultural heritage of Western Macedonia in Greece. Such events cannot be created without the good will and engagement of a wide variety of actors who add a dash of their own passion projects to create a space where different ideas and approaches merge and form a conversation between three very similar and yet differing European regions, between the old and the new, between elements of the past that can be preserved and a changed future that is being envisaged.
As the event was linked through its date to the Annual Political Dialogue (APD) on Coal Regions in Transition, organized by the European Commission, we participated in their event and also extended an invitation to our concert. The APD venue presented the exhibitions of artists from Greece and Poland, showcasing the imaginings of artists in communities in transition and their ideas on local cultural heritage. We also organized one of the study trips offered within the scope of the event, taking APD participants from all over Poland, Europe and from Brussels itself to visit local communities (Kleczew town and Wierzbinek Commune), impacted directly by close proximity to open-pit mines and now by the closure of the industry. We showed them the Dolores excavator that had been saved from destruction thanks to the initiative of local activists and cooperation with the local mining and energy production company, ZEPAK SA. A few months later, the short documentary created thanks to the support of the international NGO CEE Bankwatch Network and filmed by local filmmaker Adam Jaroński was first launched during the Just Transition Platform in Brussels in October 2025. Such exchanges and collaboration make it possible for us to bring the voices of people on the ground, in regionns facing enormous challenges, to those who decide on our future at the centre of the European Union.
The project merged many different forms of art: music, theatre, dance, painting, installations, murals, cuisine, local crafts. It also involved educational elements, such as study visits to Konin's old town, where we told the story of the town's multicultural and multi-religious past, as well as walking past the unique Natura 2000 bird habitat river area running through the town. We discussed the environmental impacts of many decades of open-pit mining on the water eco-system in the region and our ideas for how this can be remedied. Our Greek colleagues explained the history of how their academy of fine arts developed in Florina and showed us some of their greatest artists and local perspectives on creating art from what we see around us.
Another strong focus were discussions of the social, economic and demographic impacts of the collapse of the coal mining and energy production industry on such regions, and how this has impacted local communities and our activism. These occurred throughout the event as we exchanged information about our regions amongst ourselves and the people who participated in our various activities.
Another strong focus were discussions of the social, economic and demographic impacts of the collapse of the coal mining and energy production industry on such regions, and how this has impacted local communities and our activism. These occurred throughout the event as we exchanged information about our regions amongst ourselves and the people who participated in our various activities.
Project financing should be based on guaranteed funds secured by the local organizer to cover the costs of hosting the festival. The available budget dictates the scale and format of the event. The organizers should have prepared a maximum and minimum program, dependent on the ultimately available project budget, but assuming at least minimum necessary funds to support an event meeting JTC program standards. Given the challenging conditions in which local promoters operate, a margin of tolerance must be maintained, as the primary objective of the JTC program is to provide support to local organizations and artists that by default insufficiently funded. The basis of the budget is the guarantee of funds and other support (e.g. venue) provided at least by local governments and institutions, with hopes that in future national and international support will grow.
Such an event as the Just Transition Culture should be financed on a hybrid basis, including through grants, multilateral agreements with public institutions, voluntary participation of groups and individuals, sponsorship, preferably with a strategic sponsor and other sponsorship options.
The activities of the team coordinating the multi-year program should be undertaken by several entities and individuals to spread the workload.
Organizing the Just Transition Culture 2025 event has led to discussions with various entities interested in supporting activities aimed at promoting local initiatives and the regions. We received funding from organizations such as CEE Bankwatch Network, institutions such as the Regional Development Agency S.A. in Konin, local governments – Konin County, Wierzbinek Commune, Kleczew Commune, and sponsors - municipal service companies and the mining/energy company ZE PAK S.A. Our Greek colleagues also received support from local and regional governments and institutions. This allowed the organizers to successfully implement the event, securing the project budget financially.
Such an event as the Just Transition Culture should be financed on a hybrid basis, including through grants, multilateral agreements with public institutions, voluntary participation of groups and individuals, sponsorship, preferably with a strategic sponsor and other sponsorship options.
The activities of the team coordinating the multi-year program should be undertaken by several entities and individuals to spread the workload.
Organizing the Just Transition Culture 2025 event has led to discussions with various entities interested in supporting activities aimed at promoting local initiatives and the regions. We received funding from organizations such as CEE Bankwatch Network, institutions such as the Regional Development Agency S.A. in Konin, local governments – Konin County, Wierzbinek Commune, Kleczew Commune, and sponsors - municipal service companies and the mining/energy company ZE PAK S.A. Our Greek colleagues also received support from local and regional governments and institutions. This allowed the organizers to successfully implement the event, securing the project budget financially.
There is a lot of interest in organizing similar events in the future in other transitioning regions. We are currently in the process of organising the second edition in Florina, Western Macedonia in Greece, which will take place in September of 2026. The event will continue based on existing conceptual elements and feature a new interdisciplinary project in the form of an event combining music, dance and the visual arts.
The ongoing just transition process has identified over 90 such regions scattered across Europe and through our international work on just transition (e.g. in the working groups of the EU Just Transition Platform), we have already heard from many that they would like to host a similar event in their region or bring their art, culture, music and cuisine to a festival of this type. The framework is very open to the inclusion of a wide diversity of approaches and forms of artistic expression and presentation, while also providing opportunities for sharing about the many challenges of such difficult transitions.
This unprecedented fusion of cross-community and cross-sectoral collaboration has led to the establishment of the Just Transition Culture Foundation (at the time of the event last year, the organization was not yet officially founded), responsible for organising future events of this kind across Europe.
The JTC Foundation is also using the JTC brand in its work on coordinating the development of a revitalisation programme for the Konin Basin, and creating a knowledge-sharing platform dedicated to the preservation of post-industrial heritage through cultural activities in Europe’s coal-mining regions. The project is ongoing and continues to attract new partners.
The ongoing just transition process has identified over 90 such regions scattered across Europe and through our international work on just transition (e.g. in the working groups of the EU Just Transition Platform), we have already heard from many that they would like to host a similar event in their region or bring their art, culture, music and cuisine to a festival of this type. The framework is very open to the inclusion of a wide diversity of approaches and forms of artistic expression and presentation, while also providing opportunities for sharing about the many challenges of such difficult transitions.
This unprecedented fusion of cross-community and cross-sectoral collaboration has led to the establishment of the Just Transition Culture Foundation (at the time of the event last year, the organization was not yet officially founded), responsible for organising future events of this kind across Europe.
The JTC Foundation is also using the JTC brand in its work on coordinating the development of a revitalisation programme for the Konin Basin, and creating a knowledge-sharing platform dedicated to the preservation of post-industrial heritage through cultural activities in Europe’s coal-mining regions. The project is ongoing and continues to attract new partners.
